We go hands-on with Project Arc, a top-down isometric PvP shooter developed by Krafton, and set in the PUBG universe. After playing it for a short amount of time, it has given us a rather promising and exciting new competitive shooter with quite the skill ceiling.
An Early Press Event Showed Us Big Competitive Potential, Even If the Studio Wrecked Our Shit
You know, typically, when we attend a press event, it’s pretty normal for the developers to sort of go easy on us in their games, while we get used to it. I know, I know, that paints us press as being bad at video games, which, you know, we can debate or not about, but that’s for another time. But with Project ARC, Krafton took a bit of a ballsier approach, and in the few matches we got to play through, they destroyed us. I mean, I know all of us in the press were new to the game, but god damn! Did Krafton really put their foot on the accelerator and say, “Haha, too bad, scrubs, we aren’t going easy on you!” We were like chickens trying to fend off a pack of hungry rabid wolves, and as one probably would expect, it was an absolute massacre.
That would normally be reacted to with the same kind of response, that being “negative,” but honestly, it actually left me more excited because I had witnessed just how far the strategic depth could go, even if I was on the receiving end.
In our hands-on, we played through about six matches, half being Team Deathmatch and the other being Demolition, which is an attacker and defender type of mode. But before we could begin a match, the game had us choose from eight different classes. I called them classes because I wouldn’t really consider Project Arc to be your everyday hero shooter, as the only differences between the characters, outside of looks, were the types of gadgets they each had. For the most part, they were pretty basic ones, too, like a grenade launcher, camera, medkit, etc., something more commonly seen in a shooter like Battlefield.
Once that was picked, we loaded up into our first Team Deathmatch match. Again, the studio destroyed us, but at least in this mode, we had a fighting chance since it had unlimited respawning. From a combat perspective, being top-down was an interesting choice on Krafton’s part, but once I started moving, I totally understood what they were going for. If you ever played Tacticool or Door Kickers, you probably understand what I mean about the gameplay, but for those who haven’t, the game doesn’t exactly reveal everything to you from this perspective. Sure, you have a full view of sections of the map as you move through it, but enemies and you won’t just show up unless they’re within aiming view. That means characters can hide behind corners and still be pretty “stealthy” in their approach. But to counteract this, there’s a shared cone of vision, meaning that you have your field of view; your teammates do too. So if they spot an enemy, you’ll see them from your side if they are on screen. Additionally, the game has friendly fire, which we, huh, made sure was working A LOT during our hands-on.
In many ways, this isn’t just your everyday PvP shooter, where you run around a map endlessly, racking up kills. No, instead, Project Arc, despite being rather fast-paced, takes a more strategic approach. As we witnessed from the dev side, coordination is key, and being able to communicate with one another is an absolute must. It also makes for a faster, more enjoyable experience, something we in the press started using more as the matches went on. Again, we sucked, but I won’t deny we had some laughs shared and some really tense moments that had our adrenaline pumping when bodies started dropping.
Of course, TDM is your traditional multiplayer mode, and I really enjoyed its fast, frantic gameplay, but I think where most of the action will be is with Demolition. It’s essentially search and destroy, with an attacker and defender side, round-based, and limited to one life per round. The twist here, though, is that it’s more akin to, say, Rainbow Six Siege, giving you prep stages and the ability to set up traps and even reinforce walls. I wasn’t expecting that because, typically, things from other modes sort of carry over. Like in Call of Duty, Search and Destroy is round-based and limited respawning, but beyond that, the core gameplay remains the same; you just have to be more careful about things.
In execution, even though I was dying the moment I took a step into the defender zone, it felt like teamwork worked in a rather natural way as we slowly began to plan out things, trying to one-up the devs at their own game. It never happened mind you, but I know we were having a pretty good time with it trying to see how many we could take out before our eventual teamwipe.
We didn’t get to play too much, a little under an hour, so it’s hard to stretch any more of this hands-on beyond what’s here. But I will say that Project ARC showed a lot of promise, and even though we had our asses handed to us, I could see how much potential this game could have in the competitive market. I know many may dismiss it for its visuals (the art direction is pretty solid, to be fair) and being top-down, but I think Krafton could have something big here. I’m hoping they have an open beta before its 2025 release, as that’ll give us a much better look, but as of right now, I’ll say it’s in pretty good shape, outside of some still work-in-progress UI elements.
Project ARC has no release date other than a 2025 window. At the moment, it’s only confirmed to be in development for PC.
